THE famous Tornado steam locomotive is back in one piece today after the completion of extensive repair works.

The huge boiler was carefully lowered back in to place at the National Railway Museum (NRM) yesterday and everything is now on track for Tornado to take its first paying passengers of 2011 this spring.

Engineers in Germany have been working to repair cracks in the boiler and firebox over winter at their specialist workshop in Meiningen.

Mark Allatt, chairman of the A1 Locomotive Stream Trust, builders of Tornado, said reassembling would now get underway in time for the train’s London to Bath and Bristol Run on May 26.

Meanwhile, the NRM will today launch its Easter exhibition, giving visitors a taste of the orient as it celebrates ten years since the arrival of the Japanese Bullet Train in York.

The free festival runs until April 28 and includes rare visitor access to the cab of the bullet train.

Sue Dalton, cultural planning manager at the museum, said: “We’ve been home to the only bullet train outside Japan for ten years now and we wanted to mark the occasion with our family Easter holiday festival.”